Saw Review

"Most people are so ungrateful to be alive, but not you, not anymore..."
-Tobin Bell "Saw" 2004


Released in 2004 under the direction of James Wan and distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment on an estimated budget of $1,200,000, "Saw" was a horror film made with the idea of doing a low budget thriller involving two men locked in a room together while being told they have to kill one another. What Wan did not intend Saw to be was a franchise as he was trying to make it a mystery thriller that had horrible things happen to people to make a metaphorical point on the victims of the movie. What surprises me the most is how a complete unknown director.writer managed to acquire the acting talents of Cary Elwes, Danny Glover and Tobin Bell for a low budget horror film like this. The film I've bashed on so much without really seeing it in it's entirety, I'm finally gonna give it justice.

Plot: Waking up in an decrepit old bathroom, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell) discover that not only have they been chained to the pipes and there is a dead man in the middle of the room but they are informed via audio tapes that by 6 o'clock, Dr. Gordon must kill Adam or else, not only will Gordon's family die, he will be locked inside the room forever. Trying to keep a steady mind and understand what's going on, Dr. Gordon theorizes this is the work of the Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell) a serial killer who forces his victims to do horrible things to themselves to survive, like going through a maze of barbed wire or putting their head in a metallic mask called a "Reverse Bear Trap". Detective David Tapp (Danny Glover) is obsessed with catching this killer that it has cost him his job and his partner, is under the assumption that the killer is Dr. Gordon. But who is the killer what does he want? Let the game begin.

I admit, for a film that is credited with kickstarting a popular franchise, this one seems rather tame, but wickedly brilliant. Oh yeah, you heard, don't think that was a typo, this film is surprisingly brilliant. It reminds me of something like"Se7en" but here, the focus is on the victims rather than the police detectives. The whole film is told mostly from the perspective of these two guys who barely know each other and their attempts to work together to figure a way out while trying to escape without going too radical. It's played out effectively, even down to the torture scenes which are rather tame. They seem to employ the "Tell than Show" rule here for some of the traps when it is revealed via flashback the other traps in the film. Two examples include two victims found dead and only brief hints show what occurred in their tests but everything is shown via snapshots and police reports with the sounds of Jigsaw's voice exhaling the test to them. The one example where they do show what happened involves Amanda, a former drug addict, telling police detectives how she survived her trap, not only do the filmmakers show what happened, they jump back and forth to see Amanda telling the story to the police detectives. It's not terribly gory except for when she pulls out the organs of her drug dealer to get the key but the film doesn't show her cutting him. 
This sense of tame violence ensures that the focus is not on the violence itself, but on the mystery element of who is the killer. Because of this, it works well as a mystery thriller. We care about the characters we are given and we are invested in what's going on and trying to understand the role they play in this mystery. The traps themselves are symbolic of the people they are inflicted upon. Take for instance, Paul, a perfectly normal man who decided to slit his wrists, presumably for attention; Jigsaw puts him in a maze of barbed wire, telling him that if he wants to survive, he'll have to cut himself again. It's almost a form of dark humor that reflect on the unappreciative people. It's clever really, very much so.

Characters:

Cary Elwes:  British actors continue to astound me how they well they can drop their British accents and give full American accents. Such is the case of Cary Elwes, okay, so his English accent slips in a few times but he manages to keep a level head for most for the film before he finally breaks down and saw his own foot off (which you never see him actually doing, they only show blood splattering in between cuts back to a panicking Adam). He was the guy you root for the most, he has a family so his reasons for wanting to survive make the most sense to us. He also is the only one with the sense to not panic but as the film progresses, we all are given just as much reason that he could be the killer as it could be Zepp the creepy orderly from the hospital. Regardless, whatever theories he comes up, we take said theories to try to complete the mystery as it progresses on screen.

Leigh Whannel: I know this guy wrote the screenplay but this guy is annoying as hell. He's so whiny and neurotic that I really wanted Dr. Gordon to just kill him when he had the chance. Sure, he is somewhat vital to the story's narrative but I just wanted to slap him for being annoying. I assume he represents the average man and how panic can set in so fast. Yet, I found him so annoying that he didn't want to work together with Dr. Gordon, the most easy-minded guy IN this movie for most of it. He has a few twists and turns as the story progresses but my rule of thumb is that if you are given a character that annoys the hell out of you and you want to see him/her die, then you're not going to care all that much whatever happens to him/her.

Danny Glover: Sorry to say but I think this was wasted potential on Glover's part. He's not bad, to say, it's just the character he plays. We've seen this character before, an obsessed cop hell bent on turning in the serial killer (Detective David Miles or Agent Ethan Thomas anyone?) to the point of stalking Dr. Gordon. Danny makes the most out of the role but I find him, for lack of a better word, to be a token black guy. But looking beyond tokenism, what he actually serves is being the perspective of the murders from an authoritarian stand-point and how the Police are looking into the murders, this gives information to the audience. So, it is fair to say he does the job and he doesn't half-ass it; but because I've seen this character a lot that it doesn't seem new to me.

Tobin Bell: I'm not gonna comment on the role he plays physically since we barely see him through most of the film but instead how he performs vocally. Anyone who's even heard of the "Saw" franchise probably knows of it for the traps, it's "Hello Zepp" theme and voice that can be heard on the tapes. He has such a gravely yet eerie voice that really sends a chill up your spine. It's cold yet also helpful if you can hear the double meaning to what his traps. His voice sound very rather electronic, almost mechanical sound, giving the impression that it could be anyone. 
See clip below for example.

The rest of the casting are not worth mention since they fail to leave an impact other than just being the roles the script calls for. Zepp is all right, but very little is seen of him, the same with Detective Sing, nothing memorable about him other than his rather clever way of saving a Jigsaw victim from getting drilled in the head by shooting the drills. Dr. Gordon's wife and daughter are all right, they play the roles they're given and they do it well. The acting is not Oscar-worthy but it works considering it's genre and budgeting.

Production: For a film that is infamous for starting the torture porn craze from the last decade, the film is surprisingly tame. True, there is gore, but what surprises me is how limited it is. This can be attributed to the low budget the filmmakers had to work with, but what shots they do show, it's rather effective in just giving the idea of gruesome violence than just showing it. These include the dreaded foot removal scene, we only briefly see Dr. Gordon starting to cut into his foot until it cuts away to show his face being squirted with blood. Afterwards, we never see his foot and his pants cover his leg to hide away the fact that Mr. Elwes clearly did not cut off his own foot. It's shocking but very effective in generating the idea that our minds form. Considering the very tight schedule director James Wan had to endure as he could not film everything he wanted so he had to use photographs and voiceover with sped-up surveillance camera-like footage to tell the story. The soundtrack (created by Charlie Clouser) is a mixture of industrial rock that sounds like rejected Nine Inch Nails demo tapes (ironically enough, Clouser WAS a former member of Nine Inch Nails for the 90's. Go figure) it works for the scenes to instill the mood but the music composition everyone remembers is the track called "Hello Zepp" and, honestly, since it plays at the end, it's so effective in bringing the concept of revelation as all the pieces fall together. It's timed dramatically and effectively gives this feeling of desperation and importance, hence why it's been used in certain trailers such as the Tom Cruise film "Valkyrie." Any more I would have to say is, with the budget James Wan was given, I'm impressed with what he did manage to film. 

Bottom Line: For someone who has always ranted on the Saw films as being "garbage," I'm glad at least gave this film a try. However, because I already knew about the sequels and their premises, some elements felt spoiled to me, but if I was an audience member back in 2004, I would have been really shocked and possibly thrilled without feeling spoiled. Still, the way the film paces itself is clever until it comes to it's last surprise to show a character you never really suspected. However, even if "Saw" is clever enough, it's not "The Usual Suspects" clever, which can boast great acting performances with a slick story. "Saw" isn't perfect but I was really engaged and I found the idea of a serial killer that does kill you directly but puts you in horrible situations where you inflict harm upon yourself to be interesting and terrifying in concept. Sure, it's pacing could be better and the acting could be a bit stronger. Still, for what it's worth, this is a movie I would like to see again with some friends who are up for it or if they have a strong stomach.

Final Rating: 3.75 out of 5